This week, a group of graduates and undergrads from Lalit Kala Kendra launch Theatre Flamingo, a mobile theatre company, which will set up stage in small town Maharashtra

Twenty-three-year-old theatre student Keatan Jadhav’s red-rimmed, sleep deprived eyes light up when he speaks of Theatre Flamingo, a travelling theatre project named after the magnificent migratory bird, which has absorbed his time and thoughts this month. “We thought of this project four days before we graduated and have only been planning since,” says Jadhav, “what if we went to villages and smaller cities to perform? How would it be received?” Jadhav, who along with his batchmate Vinayak Kolwankar and seven others formed the mobile theatre group, will stage three Marathi plays in the city before setting out on a twoweek back-to-back tour schedule performing in Kolhapur, Latur, Ichalkaranji, Sindhudurg, Nanded, Amravati, Kanakavli and parts of rural Goa among parts of Maharashtra. “What if we home delivered theatre like say, pizza?” asks Jadhav.

While the analogy maybe modern, India has had a rich history of travelling theatre troupes with Natraj Theatre, set up by the legendary Assamese dramatist, Achyut Lahkar, in 1963 being one of the most distinguished ones. Luckyjee Gupta from Kashmir is another travelling theatre artist, who began touring in 2009, with a single backpack, performing across the country from Jammu and Kashmir to Nagaland to Kerala, has been an inspiration, says Jadhav. “We are ready to perform in balconies, courtyards and any tiny space that we are offered,” he adds. Besides breaking the norm of fixed venues and a conventional revenue model, mobile theatre groups have been formed on the premise of wanting to give back to society and creating a new audience. “I don’t think that those living cities like Bombay can make time for theatre,” says Kolwankar, 24, who was born and raised in Mumbai before he moved to Pune to study theatre, “I also feel that there is not as much need for theatre in urban India as there is in the rural parts of the country.”

The plays performed by Theatre Flamingo will deal with pressing subjects, says Kolwankar. “All of us are turning into islands and these themes hope to break that insular frame of mind,” he adds. The Indian family system in Wasanani Jeernani, written by celebrated Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar in the Nineties, the search for self in Dr Nai, a farcical one-act play based on the character by the same name who features in Dinuchya Sasubai Radhabai written by Baban Prabhu, and the caste system based on the literary work At and Post: Devache Gothane, an autobiographical account of Dalit writer Madhav Kondvilkar are among the themes that the group will tackle. While the plays have been staged by Theatre Flamingo’s members as part of their student productions at Lalit Kala Kendra, the works will gain new perspective in the coming weeks, feels Jadhav. “We want to know what the rural audience is looking for. All we know is that they love comedy, but we want to get to the roots and understand why they love this genre,” he adds. Among the three one-act plays that the group will stage is Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana interpreted using the 300-year-old theatre form of Chitrakathi, which has its origins in Sindhudurg.

With the entire set and costumes packed into a single trunk, Theatre Flamingo, hopes to create a new, selfsufficient, sustainable community for theatre outside of cities such as Pune and Mumbai. “We have fixed schedules in some towns and we’re waiting for things to develop in places like Latur,” says Jadhav, “It’s still cooking.” Both Jadhav and Kolwankar are sure that they will earn enough to make ends meet. “Maybe we’ll pass our hat around after the play, maybe we won’t, but we do know that if we believe in it, we will be able to make this work,” says Kolwankar. The group members have dipped into their own pockets to fund the flight of Theatre Flamingo and part of their travel is being funded by organisers in various cities, says Jadhav.

And if they don’t find a benefactor who will place his trust in them, they have a plan to meet that challenge too. “We’ll just take to the streets with our dholki — we have a musician in our troupe too — and announce in the old fashioned style that we will be staging a play that evening. The charm of going to a small town or a village is that rural folk are kind and they will spare the time to watch our performance.”

Theatre Flamingo will make its debut at Sudarshan Rangmanch, Shaniwar Peth on May 23 at 7 pm.

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